Sunday, December 1, 2013

Liaoning Museum in Shenyang, my home city in Manchuria, the capital city of Qing Dynasty before the Manchu people conquered the Han China inside the Great Wall and made Beijing new capital, had many art and craft treasures, mostly as the legacy of the former imperial glory. Due to the fragility of those Chinese paintings and calligraphy on silk or paper, and my dwelling in the U.S. for more than half of my life now, I hadn't the chance to view most, if any, of those the most valuable works collected in that museum, till last September, when they assembled some of their most notable works on display, including one of the most famous paintings from ancient China - 簪花仕女图 Court Ladies Adorning Their Hair with Flowers by 周昉 Fang ZHOU, Tang Dynasty, (active 766～779 - 785～804). The sublime and exquisite painting captured the luxury and easy of the court life during the most self-confident period of Chinese history - Tang Dynasty (618-906 A.D.).

Another finest example was an ancient copy by an unknown Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) artist of a legendary painter 顾恺之 Kaizhi GU (c. 344-405), on the theme of an ode to the beautiful Goddess of River Luo, who had a romantic encounter with the poet, 曹植 Zhi CAO (192-232), in his romantic poem of the same title.

摹顾恺之洛神赋图 Copy of Ode to Goddess of River Luo by Kaizhi GU, 佚名 Anonymous, Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), 26.3x641.6cm

Other works on display included some imaginary and realistic landscapes, such as 茂林远岫图 Landscape of Luxuriant Forest and Distant Cave
by 李成 Cheng LI, Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) and 荷乡清夏图 Clear Summer Lotus Country by 马麟 Lin MA, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and 竹西草堂图 Bamboo West Cottage, by 赵雍 &
张渥, Yong ZHAO & Wo ZHANG, Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368):

There was a rare portrait by another famous painter of Yuan Dynasty, 赵孟頫 Mengfu ZHAO (1304), 红衣西域僧图 Red Robed Western Monk, depicting a high Buddhistmonk with from the Central Asia (west to China), meditating under a Bodhi tree. The features of the monk were vividly depicted and the colors of the green rock and his red robe, formed great contrast yet without clash, due to the less than fully saturated nature of the colors employed. An unforgettable piece.

红衣西域僧图 Red Robed Western Monk, 赵孟頫 Mengfu ZHAO, 1304, 26x52cm

There were more notable paintings, such as these two below, whose attributes I failed to record, though:

Calligraphy was a highly regarded art in China, though I am not trained in that field and could only respond to them due to their visceral impacts. Below are several pieces I found amazing, many for their sheer scales, and beauty of course:

There were many other treasures, particularly archeological artifacts, in Liaoning Museum, as I reported before. Due to time constraint, I skipped those sections, and visited briefly another special photography exhibit - Indigenous Americans:Maya, Aztec andNative Americans-by Jeffrey Jay Foxx, together with some fabric objects.

Visiting my home city art museum turned out to be quite a wonderful experience.